If you’re anti-woke and wanted to see a new movie in 2022, you didn’t have many options. “The Northman” was excellent, though not for everyone thanks to the violence and dark story line. “Spirited” was pretty good, but only available on Apple TV and it certainly didn’t have a conservative storyline. “The Terminal List” was true to the book and had a somewhat conservative storyline, but was a TV show, not a movie. And then there was “Top Gun: Maverick,” which was non-woke, a movie pretty much anyone could watch, and absolutely fantastic.
Fortunately for the investors that funded it, the studio that produced it, and the actors that starred in it, Top Gun: Maverick has been nominated for six Oscar nominations, including best picture, in one of the few examples of critics and audiences agreeing on a movie in recent years.
Deadline, reporting on the film’s nominations, reported that “Top Gun: Maverick scored six Oscar nominations this morning including best picture, along with adapted screenplay by Ehren Kruger & Eric Warren Singer, sound, film editing, visual effects and original song for the Lady Gaga tune “Hold My Hand”.”
The same Deadline report went on to note that the rare case of audience and critics agreeing on a film probably happened because Cruise’s hit film pulled the movie theater industry out of a pandemic-induced nosedive, saying:
“The film’s emergence as a best picture threat might have seemed an impossible mission, in that a summer movie that grosses nearly $1.5 billion worldwide moves popcorn, not Oscar voters. This Paramount Pictures film has proven to be the exception and one big reason is this: if Tom Cruise didn’t rescue the theatrical box office business following the Covid pandemic, he certainly pulled it out of a nosedive.”
Breitbart, reporting on the success of Top Gun: Maverick in theaters and how it was devoid of the “woke sermonizing” that ruins most movies, noted that:
“Top Gun: Maverick was an unqualified popular and critical success, earning $1.49 billion at the global box office and nearly unanimous praise from critics. The Paramount release notably avoided the woke sermonizing and left-wing preaching that have become commonplace in Hollywood movies, proving that audiences still crave the kind of straightforward entertainment.”
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Further, the surprisingly patriotic film was not shown in Russia or Red China, so its box office success came purely from America and friendly nations, which is rare for a Hollywood which has increasingly leaned toward appeasing Red China to gain access to its large market. In fact, its success with that audience was so large that it is the top-grossing film of Cruise’s career.
So perhaps Maverick not only pulled the movie industry out of a revenue nosedive but also reminded it that patriotic films our enemies hate can succeed.
In winning 6 Oscar nominations, Top Gun: Maverick actually outperformed the original Top Gun film, which received four nominations.
Unfortunately, not all the Oscar nominations this year were non-woke. Four Disney films, all of which were predictably off the deep end of wokeness, received a combined total of 10 Oscar nominations.
Huge congratulations to the cast and crew of Turning Red, Black Panther: Wakanda Forever and Avatar: The Way of Water on their ten #OscarNoms! ✨ pic.twitter.com/0PHY8Mpmyo
— Disney UK (@Disney_UK) January 24, 2023
Featured image by By U.S. Navy photo by Mass Communication Specialist 2nd Class Olympia O. McCoy – https://www.dvidshub.net/image/7177028/commander-naval-air-forces-hosts-top-gun-maverick-global-premiere, Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=117787550